


21st Century Romantic

by MysteriouslyNotNamed0_0



Category: We Bare Bears (TV)
Genre: Fluffy, M/M, Selfies, at least that filter's good for something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 16:33:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7941484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysteriouslyNotNamed0_0/pseuds/MysteriouslyNotNamed0_0
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Like any good romantic, Panda would love to have a picture of his boyfriend as his phone wallpaper. Unfortunately, Charlie's got that whole camera-shy thing going on and won't let him do that. There's got to be some sort of middle ground, right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	21st Century Romantic

Panda slowly lifted his phone up to his chest, squinting down at the screen awkwardly as he tried to angle the camera. Just a little farther... just a....

The phone fell out of his paws and he looked up angrily. "Dang it, Charlie-"

"Were you tryin' to take a picture of me again?" 

"I was just checking my email, Charlie," Panda lied. 

Charlie was pouting childishly, his eyebrows drawn tightly together in anger. "You know I don't want to- you know you can't do that, Panda! You said you wouldn't." He settled to his knees while Panda scooped his phone out of the grass. "You said."

Panda carefully checked his phone for cracks. "I know, I know I did, Charlie." Satisfied that it was unharmed, he set it down beside him gently. "But you're so cute. You just lend yourself so well to candid shots."

Charlie started, the fur on his shoulders standing up just a bit. "C-candid...?"

"I haven't actually taken any, Charlie, calm down." Panda sighed and shook his head. "I just... other people get to have their date's face as their phone wallpaper, or share pictures of them on the internet, and I always... I dunno." He turned so that he could lean against Charlie's shoulder. "I always kinda thought when I started dating, it would be fun to show my date off."

Charlie was quiet for a second. "You know why I'm so nervous to let people see me, right?"

"No, but I'm sure you have your reasons." Panda looked up at him. "It's okay. I get it."

"You do?" Charlie smoothed down a lock of hair sticking up on Panda's head. 

"Yeah, I do. I'm disappointed.. but I get it. I'm sorry."

"No, I'm sorry I won't let you do your fun romantic things." 

Panda reached for his phone after a moment and pressed the home button. "I have this as my wallpaper right now," he said.

Charlie looked down at the glowing screen with a grin. Between the clock and the unlock button was a carefully shaded, very stylized drawing of him. Two big brown, sparkling eyes with a lock of green fur falling into them; a pointy little mustache under his tiny black nose. Pink blush lines under his eyes. Beside him were two tiny red hearts with a loving "Charlie" written between them. "Aw, Pan pan, this is beautiful," he said tearfully.

"Thanks. I drew it myself." Panda brought his phone down so he could look at the drawing some more. He sighed heavily. "It doesn't look much like you, though."

Charlie didn't know what to say, so he went back to fiddling around with Panda's head hair.

A few minutes passed before Panda spoke up. "Hey, I mean... no one ever looks at other people's phone wallpapers..."

"Pan," Charlie warned. "If you're going with this where I think you're going with this-"

"No, really! Listen!" Panda sat up, grinning. "Listen, no one ever looks at the phone wallpaper!"

"Not intentionally," Charlie's voice shook and he cleared his throat to steady it. "Not intentionally, but what if they- you open it on the street and someone glances over your shoulder-"

"The home wallpaper, then! All I'd have to do is turn it off and pretend it never happened. Besides, I wouldn't ever keep the lock screen open for long."

"I don't know, Pan-" Charlie put one hand up to his mouth. "I don't know. I- I don't know..."

Panda stopped grinning and put his phone back down on the grass. "Charl?"

"I- I'm sorry, Panda-" Charlie grinned from behind his shaking hand. "Look, I'm okay. We could take a-a-a- picture- s'okay with m- with me!" He inhaled shakily and grinned wider.

Panda frowned. "No, no, we don't have to. You can breathe." He put one paw on Charlie's hand, rubbing it gently. "Shh. There's gotta be a compromise."

They thought to themselves quietly for a long minute.

Panda gasped suddenly and whipped out his phone. Quickly scrolling through the apps, tapping furiously, he finally found what he was looking for and spun the screen around to face Charlie.

On the screen was Charlie's reflection, and the bigfoot flinched away, though he kept watching skeptically. "What's- why do I have big ears?" He reached up to feel them, but they weren't really there.

"This filter's really popular, Charlie; it makes you look like a dog. Open your mouth."

He did, and a moment later a massive tongue flopped out on the screen.

"Tarnation, Panda," he slapped his hands over his mouth and spoke through laced fingers. "Tarnation, is my tongue really that big?"

"No, Charlie, it edits your picture in real time." He took the phone back and snapped his own picture. "Look, no one would recognize you with this filter on! And you'd look super cute!"

"I'm not sure-"

Panda threw his arm around Charlie and pulled him close. "It's okay! Look- if we take it, and you still think you look too recognizable, I'll delete it. Immediately."

Charlie looked at Panda's wide grin, then looked at the phone again. "A-and you promise, you'll be the only one who sees this?"

"Oh, for sure. I promise." Panda held up the phone in front of them and smiled at Charlie. "You ready for this?"

Charlie squeezed his eyes shut and nodded.

"Okay. One... two... smile!" Charlie opened his eyes and grinned weakly.

It was over just like that, and Panda did some quick editing before turning to show it to Charlie. "Well? Don't you look adorable?"

"Not as cute as you," Charlie said, inspecting the picture. Their faces were equally obscured by the filter, but still recognizable. Charlie hoped it was only recognizable to those that personally knew him or Panda. And he did have to agree, it made Panda look absolutely adorable. "B-but I think- here, let's take another. I'm making a weird face under all that dog stuff."

Panda shrugged and turned the phone back to face them. "Yeah, that tree looks funny behind us. Here, turn around."

After a couple more tries, they finally had one they could both agree on. In seconds, Panda had replaced his drawing with the selfie as his wallpaper and deleted all the failed attempts. 

He looked up at Charlie with a grin. The bigfoot's smile matched his own. "That wasn't so bad, right?"

Charlie giggled. "Yeah, I guess that was alright." He smoothed back his hair with one hand, then he frowned and turned back to Panda. "You're sure no one else will see that picture?"

"Absolutely sure. Positive." Panda turned his phone back on to smile at it, then smiled up at Charlie. "Thank you for letting me do this."

"Oh, yeah." Charlie shrugged. "Yeah. Anything for you, Pan-pan."

Panda threw his arms around Charlie's waist, hugging him tight. "Hey, I know that must have been hard. Thank you," he said again with emphasis. "It means a lot to me."

Charlie patted Panda's back awkwardly. "Well, you're welcome. And maybe- maybe another day, we can get dressed up in cute outfits or something, do it again. For the holidays."

Panda shrugged, pulling out of the hug. "This is plenty for now. Thank you."

"Well, you're quite welcome." Charlie pulled him back in for another tight hug.

**Author's Note:**

> how do i end fanfics ?? idk and that's why this is so long lol
> 
> thanks to tumblr user eleanorose123 for prompting me!


End file.
